Asheville Lacrosse Club

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The following is a history of the Asheville Lacrosse Club in Asheville, North Carolina

I founded the Asheville Lacrosse Club in 1994 and was club president from 1994 - 2004.  Here's how it all started.

In the fall of 1991 I began working for the YMCA of Western North Carolina and in the spring of 1992 I was visiting with my good friend and local business owner Chuck Campbell (former collegiate lacrosse goalie) and we discussed the possibility of growing lacrosse in Asheville.  We decided the fastest and easiest way to start was to begin with non-contact co-ed summer lacrosse.  Chuck donated the gear and I started the program through the YMCA in the summer of 1992. 

We played 7 on 7 every Wednesday evening during the summer and turn-out was light that first year.  By year two (summer 1993) we had 20 to 40 people showing up on Wednesdays at the YMCA Community Services Branch on Beaverdam Road to play.  "Out-n-About", a free weekly newspaper in Asheville put the program on the front page of one issue.  Link to the article is below. 

Some of the founding members of the men's club first started playing in this summer non-contact league including Richard Sims and Duncan Sharits.

In the fall of 1993 a group of guys who had been playing non-contact lacrosse met to discuss the formation of a men's (full contact) club program.  About half of the group had experience playing but few of us had gear.  In the spring of 1994 we ordered our personal gear and also pooled our money to buy "team gear" for those who would be new to the sport and didn't want to invest in personal gear just yet.

The first practice for the Asheville Men's Post-collegiate Lacrosse Club (aka Asheville Lacrosse) was held in the spring of 1994.

The Asheville Citizen-Times ran an article in Feb. 1994 to help us spread the word about the new program.  Link to the article is below. 

Through my position at the YMCA, I was able to promote youth (non-contact) lacrosse.  I taught YMCA summer camp staff how to play the game and they in turn shared it with the summer campers at four summer camp sites around Asheville.

Early on we used a phone tree to get the word out to club members (the internet didn't exist).

Our first uniform was old football jerseys from Asheville Middle School which Tim Mimkin was able to provide.

GOALIES

Here's the list of goalies (in order of appearance) that helped lead the team in the early years:

1. Mike Tavener

2. Tony Ferrante

3. Pete Wallace, Sr.

4. Andrew Nagle

5. Andrew Patrick

GAMES

Early on we played both men's clubs (Atlanta, Charleston, Augusta, Charlotte, Knoxville) and college clubs (Appalachian State University, UNC-Charlotte, UT-Knoxville, University of Georgia - Athens).

OUR SUMMER TOURNAMENT

We held our first summer tournament in 1995. Three teams played (Asheville, Augusta, and Knoxville) at the YMCA on Beaverdam Road. The tournament was held during the Asheville Bele Chere Festival, so we called our event the "Bele Chere Lacrosse Tournament".

We played on one field with three teams for several years and then expanded to a two field, six team tournament in 1999 or 2000. We first played on fields near TC Roberson high school and then moved the tournament to Fletcher Park (still 6 teams).

Eventually the tournament was moved to the artificial turf fields in East Asheville and the number of teams playing increased to 8 and it has grown from there. The tournament is now called the Blue Ridge Classic and is the largest summer lacrosse tournament in the southeast.

YOUTH LACROSSE IN Western North Carolina

As the men's club became more established, a handful of the team leaders decided it was time to explore ways to grow the sport among the youth in the Asheville area. Because of contacts I had within the city and county school system, I started offering free workshops for PE teachers. The workshop helped the PE teachers learn how to teach "soft lacrosse" (i.e. non-contact lacrosse). The club purchased a set of loaner soft lacrosse equipment that we loaned out to PE teachers in the region after they participated in a workshop. As interest grew, we offered a middle school contact lacrosse program for middle school boys at the indoor soccer center known as the "Pepsi Indoor Soccer Center" that was located near Sams Club in downtown Asheville (that center is gone now). Now those early efforts have blossmed into an incredible youth lacrosse program called Asheville Empire Lacrosse. 

IN THE NEWS

• 1993 Out-n-About article

• February 1994 Asheville Citizen Times article

• August 2000 Asheville Citizen Times article

• Mt Xpress article (date unknown)